Cam scams!

joepenguin

Hi guys. Just wated to bring to your attention a con i came across on the net recently.
I had been searching amazon and came across a 60d for £441, a 5d mark ii for around 800 quid and so on. It didnt have the tell tale signs of fraud at first.
What did strike me as odd was that i went into the amazon shop to see the sellers feedback which was good, it turned out the be a book store, 40 odd books and 5 top of the range slr's at knockdown price. I then thought maybe they came across wholesale bargains or bought the cams at wholesale for stock purposes but dont use them and selling them on? Something to that effect. There was an email address and it said please contact before buying. So i sent an email, (8pm) googled the store and rang them at 9am the next morning in the hope that they had something in stock but turned out that someone had illegally used their store as a front, and the lady had no clue how these cams were on her store page and it had been closed down by amazon. Then later that morning i got an email sayin send on your name and address etc. from the address i contacted first. The usual gumtree type frauds.
Now had that been a camera shop on amazon that was used im sure they would have conned at least one person with their prices and saying they were demo models.
Anyway alot of buyers will be wise to this but as its the first time i came across it i said id let you all know.
If it seems too good to be true... it probably is.

hbr

joepenguin wrote: »

If it seems too good to be true... it probably is.

Amen!

The camera scammers are getting a lot more sophisticated.
Some of the scam web sites look quite convincing. A few
Take Visa, Mastercard etc....
Give a real address,
Real phone number,
Have a "secure" encrypted payment system.

Google "shootmarket scam" to see a particularly
successful scam operation.

kdobey

hbr wrote: »

Amen!

The camera scammers are getting a lot more sophisticated.
Some of the scam web sites look quite convincing. A few
Take Visa, Mastercard etc....
Give a real address,
Real phone number,
Have a "secure" encrypted payment system.

Google "shootmarket scam" to see a particularly
successful scam operation.

I assume if you use your visa card (or probably any other credit card) you are protected from this so long as you act on it with in 45 days (or what ever the time period is for this kind of purchase).

Effects

kdobey wrote: »

I assume if you use your visa card (or probably any other credit card) you are protected from this so long as you act on it with in 45 days (or what ever the time period is for this kind of purchase).

Yeah, you are.

hbr

kdobey wrote: »

I assume if you use your visa card (or probably any other credit card) you are protected from this so long as you act on it with in 45 days (or what ever the time period is for this kind of purchase).

The card payment system is fake. It will collect your card number,
three digit security code and expiry date. This information may be
very useful to the scammer.

They don't really want you to pay by credit card. They would much
prefer to have you pay by wire transfer. The site mentioned above
uses a carrot and stick approach. If you select your credit card as
the payment method, the checkout software adds an extra charge to
the total amount. This is usually 21% or 17.5% which happens
to be the same as the Irish or UK VAT rate. The only way to avoid
this charge is to select bank transfer as the payment option.

While this is going on, stocks of the lovely Canon 7D are
running low, so you might be under pressure to act quickly.
After all, what could possibly go wrong? This is a a very large
London camera shop which has been trading for years. You
know this is true because it says so on the web-site. You
place your order and hope for the best.

After a few days, you e-mail the shop to see if your camera
has been shipped yet. You will probably get a message with
the good news that your camera was shipped on Tuesday
and it will be with you in a few days. This is just a stalling
tactic. After a few days you call the phone number and find
that it is just an answering service.

At this stage, you start to panic. You check whois to
see if the website is real.

Registrant Name: Ashley Fulers
Registrant Company: SHOOT PHOTOGRAPHY LTD
Registrant Email Address: shootphotography@ymail.com
Registrant Address: 145 ST JOHN STREET
Registrant City: LONDON
Registrant State/Region/Province:
Registrant Postal Code: EC1V 4PY
Registrant Country: GB
Registrant Tel No: +44.7812741521


This looks reassuring, except for this bit:
Domain Name: shootmarket.com
Expiry Date: 21-Aug-2011
Creation Date: 21-Aug-2010

Traceroute leads to a web server in Lithuania:
hst-28.duomenucentras.lt (77.79.12.28)

How very strange!

When you go to the search engines for feedback from
other customers, you find this:
http://www.google.ie/search?q=shootmarket+scam
This should really have been your first step.

As you have paid by wire transfer, there is no chance of
seeing your money again.

This happens every day of the week. Seemingly intelligent
people are prepared to send large sums of money to people
they don't know. A few have even sent cash to Spain so
that they can claim their lottery win :rolleyes: or Nigeria
so that they can get a huge box with umpteen million dollars
in it.

pullandbang

hbr wrote: »

or Nigeria
so that they can get a huge box with umpteen million dollars
in it.

What! You mean Mr. Oblasi Mumbutu, the son of the deceased Interior Minister is NOT going to send me the $19,760,897 he promised? Damn, there goes my 5DII for Xmas.....

Chorcai

pullandbang wrote: »

What! You mean Mr. Oblasi Mumbutu, the son of the deceased Interior Minister is NOT going to send me the $19,760,897 he promised? Damn, there goes my 5DII for Xmas.....

And the ones you were getting all of us !!

DAM YOU Mr. Oblasi Mumbutu DAM YOU I SAY !!!